


Morning Mood

by Fuhadeza



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Implied Sexual Content, casual nudity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-31
Updated: 2020-12-31
Packaged: 2021-03-11 01:41:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,916
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28456980
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fuhadeza/pseuds/Fuhadeza
Summary: ‘I can’t believe,’ Adora said, earnestly, while Catra fiddled with the temperature knobs, ‘that I spent years showering with you in the Fright Zone and never realised.’‘Realised what?’ Catra glanced down at herself and smirked. ‘That you wanted to do more than look?’‘I meant,’ Adora said, and given that she was about to be engaged in much more than looking, Catra wasn’t sure what business she had sounding embarrassed, ‘that I was in love with you.’
Relationships: Adora/Catra (She-Ra)
Comments: 40
Kudos: 339
Collections: whispering woods library new years fic exchange





	Morning Mood

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sapphwriter](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sapphwriter/gifts).



Catra watched Adora come awake by stages.

She was lying on her back, outslung arm nearly catching Catra on the nose. Summer sweat matted her hair to her collarbones. She opened her eyes, said, quite clearly, ‘I’m awake,’ rolled onto her side, and began to snore.

Catra remembered a time when Adora would wake instantly, guard up and ready to fight.

‘Hey, dummy.’ Catra traced the unbroken expanse of skin from the plain cotton of Adora’s underwear to the peak of her shoulder. ‘Time to wake up.’

‘Why?’ Adora slurred.

‘’Cause _I’m_ awake and you promised me breakfast in bed.’

‘I’m awake,’ Adora repeated. The sleep in her voice made Catra slightly more inclined to believe her. She grabbed Catra’s wrist, pulled her arm down around her, made a pleased noise when Catra’ fingers inadvertently brushed one of her nipples. ‘Tell me something nice.’

‘I miss you.’

‘What?’ Adora laughed. ‘Why?’

‘Habit.’

‘I’m right here.’

‘I know. That’s what makes it nice.’

‘That doesn’t make any sense, Catra.’

‘Maybe not.’ Catra cupped Adora’s breast and laughed into the crook of her shoulder when this made Adora press against her front. ‘It woke you up, though.’

‘Mmm. You’re right. This _does_ feel nice. Comfy. Maybe I’ll go back to sleep.’

‘Maybe I’ll go take a shower and leave you in the cold, empty bed.’

‘It’s _summer_.’

‘Yeah, I know, that’s why I need a shower.’ Catra rolled Adora onto her back and leaned over her, a fraction of an inch from kissing her. ‘You wanna come?’

She’d left herself wide open on purpose, but Adora only made dirty jokes when she was tipsy. Instead, her fingers found the sensitive spot on the back of Catra’s head, where her hair was shortest, and that was just as good.

*

The funny thing about the showers in Bright Moon was that they were not so different in size from those in the Fright Zone; but where those had been meant for a dozen people at a time, the bathroom adjoining their room was theirs and theirs alone.

‘I can’t believe,’ Adora said, earnestly, while Catra fiddled with the temperature knobs, ‘that I spent years showering with you in the Fright Zone and never realised.’

‘Realised what?’ Catra glanced down at herself and smirked. ‘That you wanted to do more than look?’

‘I _meant_ ,’ Adora said, and given that she was about to be engaged in much more than _looking_ , Catra wasn’t sure what business she had sounding embarrassed, ‘that I was in love with you.’

‘Boohoo. Imagine being me.’

‘ _Hey._ ’

‘I’m just saying! I knew _exactly_ how I felt.’ Catra treated Adora to her toothiest grin. ‘It was torture.’

‘Didn’t stop you taking showers with me.’

‘Guilty,’ Catra said, with some relish, and stepped into the steam. Adora followed, more gingerly, until Catra pulled her the rest of the way in and she yelped in the heat. ‘Make yourself useful and wash my back.’

Adora rolled her eyes, but she reached for the soap regardless. ‘I will never understand,’ she said as Catra pressed herself against the blissfully cool wall tiles, ‘why you have the temperature up so high.’

‘I like the contrast,’ Catra murmured. ‘Cold wall, hot water. It’s nice.’

‘Uh-huh.’ Adora’s stomach was warm and slippery against Catra’s back. ‘Don’t you mean cold wall, hot Adora?’

‘ _Adora._ ’ Catra groaned. ‘Is that supposed to be flirting?’

Adora’s hand closed around the base of Catra’s tail, pulling just hard enough to make Catra gasp with the sensation, then working her way down its full length, her touch that strange combination of soothing and exciting that Catra never grew tired of.

‘Maybe. Is it working?’

‘That’s not fair,’ Catra said, because it was that or admit it _was_ working, that Adora could be the goofiest flirt in the world and her breath on the back of Catra’s neck would still send Catra’s pulse soaring. ‘You don’t have a tail. I’m at a disadvantage.’

‘It’s not a competition,’ Adora said, then immediately undermined herself by adding, ‘Just wait until I get to your ears.’

The soap covering Catra’s body made it easy to wriggle around in Adora’s arms. Her tail was a little uncomfortable, wedged against the wall, but the open affection on Adora’s face more than made up for it. Adora’s hair was plastered to her skin just as it had been in sleep, shades darker now that it was wet through and through. Catra reached out and tugged it back behind her shoulders.

‘Kiss me,’ Catra demanded.

Adora grinned and obeyed. Her hands, as promised, delved into the tangles of Catra’s hair, rubbing at the bases of her ears. Catra made a tiny noise of pleasure, then another when she felt Adora smile against her lips. When she finally pulled away, Catra let her gaze follow the rivulets of water running down Adora’s body, from her neck to the soft patch of her pubic hair where they beaded like tiny pearls.

‘I love you,’ Catra said softly.

‘I love you too.’

‘How does past-Adora feel now that all her shower-related fantasies have come true?’

‘Past-Adora had no idea she _had_ shower-related fantasies, remember?’

‘Aha! But you admit she did have them.’

‘Catra, that doesn’t make any sense.’

‘You keep saying that,’ Catra said, smug. ‘I think it makes perfect sense. Don’t tell me you never looked forward to the days Lonnie would skip the showers.’

Adora’s mouth opened. Closed. Catra could see the denial dying on her lips, see the memories play out in the brightness of her eyes: the lingering looks and innocent touches that became something entirely different on the rare occasions they’d had privacy in the Fright Zone.

‘If I admit I once told her she could have my rations if she went straight to dinner’—and Catra was absolutely positive there was a blush hidden beneath the hot water on Adora’s cheeks—‘will you wash my hair for me?’

*

A year ago, Catra thought, they would have fallen on each other within minutes of waking. Now, it was more gradual. The kiss in the shower became an embrace out by their bed, dripping onto the carpet, Adora’s arms around Catra’s waist, Catra’s neck angled just right to give her access; became the sound Catra made when Adora’s hands on her hips pushed her down into the bed. Catra’s fingernails caught in Adora’s still-wet hair, scraped against her scalp, pulled her closer, closer, closer.

‘Adora,’ Catra whispered, the word only one among many uneven sounds lost in the swell of her pleasure; but it had been some time since Catra felt the need to tell Adora she loved her with _every_ breath.

Afterwards, naked in the damp sheets, Adora tucked into her side, Catra said, ‘Guess it _was_ flirting,’ and Adora choked on a fit of laughter and if Catra listened carefully, if she caught the scent of clean sweat beneath the soap, if she catalogued every point where Adora’s skin was touching her, she could hear the words as clearly as the first time Adora had told her she loved her, as clearly as a Catra of years past, unused to soap and skin, had not.

She said, into the silence left behind when Adora’s mirth settled down, ‘I love you, too.’

*

‘At this rate,’ Adora said, collecting a smear of cream that had somehow ended up at the small of Catra’s back, ‘we’re going to need another shower.’

‘The height of luxury.’

Adora licked the cream off her finger. ‘ _That’s_ what puts us over the top? Not the bedroom with the literal waterfall? Or the bath in the shape of a heart, or the breakfast in bed—’

‘Delivered, don’t forget, by a robot that thankfully can’t tell when the person answering the door is wearing precisely nothing under their shirt.’

‘Right.’ Adora gave the undone collar of Catra’s shirt an appreciative tug. ‘That stuff isn’t the height of luxury?’

‘Nope. Pretty sure we had all that in the Horde. But imagine! Two showers! Twenty whole minutes of hot water!’

Adora giggled. Her hand hadn’t left Catra’s collar, and now it travelled further down, investigating the curves and angles of Catra’s body. When Catra began to purr, a smile dawned on Adora’s face, so nakedly genuine it almost made Catra blush.

‘What’s got you in such a good mood?’ Adora asked. ‘We haven’t talked about those days in… I dunno. A while.’

Catra rolled onto her stomach. This was a question that called for her full attention, and she couldn’t give it that with Adora so obviously admiring her bare chest, never mind that her treacherous tail, swishing back and forth, immediately hiked her shirt up her back and rendered the point moot.

‘It’s nice,’ she said eventually. ‘Being able to talk about that stuff.’

‘Look at you.’ Adora’s voice was as soft as her fingers stroking the length of Catra’s spine. ‘Wanting to talk about the past.’

Catra froze. She hadn’t been thinking about it that way. _The past_ was something she’d once had to make plans to think about, something she’d segregated and confined to a controlled environment. It hadn’t always worked. Sometimes it snuck up on her, made her tense and moody for days at a time.

It had never snuck up on her like this before: easily, softly, gently.

‘Is that okay?’

Adora leaned over her. The wet ends of her hair made Catra twitch when they brushed against her neck.

‘I love Glimmer,’ Adora said. ‘I love Bow. But it was always hard, talking to them about the Fright Zone. No matter what I said, they only really heard the bad stuff. I can’t blame them. I guess that’s… that’s how I realised how bad it actually was. I’d tell them about something I thought was totally normal and they’d act all horrified. And that was good. For me. But…’ Her lips brushed the back of Catra’s neck. Her hand slid down Catra’s side, came to rest on the back of Catra’s thigh. ‘I could never talk about you properly. How was I supposed to tell them that you snuck into my bed when I had a bad day? And how sometimes you acted silly to cheer me up, and that we were— _happy_ together? _I_ didn’t understand that. I didn’t get how that could be possible. I’d just learnt that the Fright Zone was bad, but I _knew_ , Catra, I knew you were good, and I had no idea how those things could both be true. So I just didn’t talk about it.’

Adora had drawn closer during this speech, wrapped her arms around Catra’s shoulders, kicked one leg out across her back. Her face was buried in Catra’s hair, just above her right ear. Her weight was comfortable. Familiar. It made Catra shiver.

‘What I’m getting from this,’ Catra said slowly, ‘is that talking about the past is okay.’

‘Yeah,’ Adora said. ‘Yeah, it’s okay.’ She craned her neck to press a kiss to the corner of Catra’s mouth. ‘After all, the past is where I met you.’

*

And when Bow and Glimmer fell into a reminiscing mood the next night over dinner, when Adora laughed louder at every new story of their childhood, Catra took her hand under the tablecloth, smiled reassuringly, and said, with all the swagger of someone who knew how best to embarrass her lover, ‘Hey, did Adora ever tell you guys about the time she bribed Lonnie to get me alone in the shower?’


End file.
